Author
of Scared Straight to Appear at Toronto's Glad
Day Bookshop November 22

(Kansas City, MO, October 21, 2002) The author of the
book which was both a Lambda Literary Award Finalist
and Independent Publisher Book Award Finalist this year
will be signing Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard
to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human
(HumanityWorks!, 2001) at Glad Day Bookshop, (598-A
Yonge St, Toronto) Friday, November 22 from 3-4 pm.

Robert N. Minor, Professor of Religious Studies at the
University of Kansas, has been conducting workshops
for communities of faith and others on "Understanding
Homophobia" for ten years. This most recent book
arises out of this work, making Minor a popular speaker
and workshop leader while it was quickly named "Book
of the Week" in July 23-29, 2001 by Menstuff.org,
the premier website on men's issues.

Scared Straight explains many of the headlines in the
news today. “They’re all related to each
other,” Dr. Minor says. “You can just tick
them off:

• Catholic Church Rocked by Priest Sex Scandal,
Cover-up, Blaming Homosexuality
• Surgeon General’s Report Says 1 out of
5 American Women Report Being Sexually Assaulted
• Male Students Continue To Shoot Their Fellow
Schoolmates
• National Boy Scouts Organization Refuses to
Bend to Local Councils to End Discharge of Gay Scouts
• Dramatic Rise in Cosmetic Surgery Reported in
Teenage Girls
• Military Discharges of Gay Men and Lesbians
Rises to Its Highest Since ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell’ in 2001
• Latino Men’s Susceptibility to HIV Rises
with Homophobia, New Study Says
• Human Rights Watch States U.S. Government’s
Failure to Protect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Youth in Schools is a Human Rights Abuse
• National Christian Denominations Divide Over
Full Acceptance of Gay People
• Harvard Medical School Researcher Calls Suppression
of Their Emotions ‘The Primary or Ultimate Cause
of All Violence’ in Adolescent Boys”

Scared Straight is an eye-opening and penetrating analysis
of U.S. culture. From the criticism of our universities
as purveyors of hopelessness to the dynamics of "getting
laid," it lays bare why accepting the full humanity
of gay people divides people and organizations.

The White Crane Journal calls it “a brilliant
book” that “ought to be required reading
for every human being.” The Greenwich Village
Gazette, describes it as “an extraordinary journey”
that takes readers “right to the core of their
most pertinent personal problems.” Brother says
Scared Straight is both “subversive” and
“eloquent” in it call for all people, including
heterosexuals ,to “come out” into their
full humanity.

Dr. Minor shows how homophobia and discrimination against
transgender and bisexual people and lesbians and gay
men is a major ingredient in our way of defining the
world. Without sparing any of our cultural institutions,
Scared Straight identifies our culture as fear-based
and in denial. Like software installed in a computer,
our system's messages install a "straight role"
in us that actually has little, if anything, to do with
sexual orientation. In the end it has little to do with
religion, tradition, or the Bible, and everything to
do with maintaining quite limiting definitions of a
"human being," a "real man" and
a "real woman."

Being “straight,” torn from their full
human potential, and squeezed into molds that support
our dominant institutions, hurts people of all sexual
orientations. Human relationships with either sex are
incomplete and unfulfilling. Chapters on "How to
Be Straight" and "How to Be Gay" describe
the roles straight and gay people are conditioned to
live in order to maintain this status quo. Yet, not
content to merely identify the problem and its depth,
in the final chapter Dr. Minor describes the dual elements
of healing that this cultural disease requires.

His comments about the place of religion in these discussions
are refreshing and potent. One reviewer said, “Read
this book, if only for the first chapter. I've never
seen a more concise explanation of why neither Christians
nor Atheists should be using the Bible to argue for
or against us queers."

Reviews are appearing throughout the world and the
University of Kansas Religious Studies Professor has
appeared as a guest on talk shows such as the “Kathleen
Dunn” show on Wisconsin Public Radio, September
4, and the Greg Freeman Show, “St. Louis on the
Air,” October 17 on public radio’s KWMU.

Professor Minor makes a lively, insightful guest. For
a media kit and copy of the book contact the distributor,
“The Fairness Project,” at the above address
email or fax number, check out www.fairnessproject.org,
or contact the author directly at rminor@ku.edu.